Monday, February 11, 2013

A Review of Cardboard by Doug TenNapel

This
graphic novel is an unabashedly boy book full of adventures, inventions,
monsters, and chase scenes—with a bunch of pop psychology mixed in. Also a plot
thread about our hero’s dad, who is still grieving over his lost wife. Cam’s
dad is out of work, and Cam has to put up with the jerk next door, a rich kid
named Marcus who can best be described as drugs, grease, and goth. When Marcus
is not sneering, he’s bullying, either that or hanging out with his sidekick
and a pet rat.

It’s
Cam’s birthday, and his dad buys him a cardboard box from a creepy guy at a roadside
toy booth who is obviously one of those magical types whose gifts are bound to
backfire. “Wait, there are rules!” the guy tells Cam’s dad, to which savvy
readers will instantly respond, “They’re going to break the rules!” Cam and his
dad make a goofy-cool boxer that comes to life. Then Cam breaks the rules,
Marcus gets involved, and pretty soon a lot of cardboard chaos has broken
loose.

I
could have done without the whole plot-as-psychological analysis and redemption
with regards to Marcus. And possibly without the additional resurrection (or
something) of Cal’s dad. This all leaves Cal as kind of a secondary character
in his own story. However, I’ll admit there’s more to life than cardboard
symbolism, and we do get a lot of great action here. The relationship between
Cal and his dad is nice, too.

As
for the artwork, TenNapel knows his stuff. He keeps the action going with
strong ink lines—lots of slashing diagonals and forward motion. His palette
tends to be a bit dark, with blacks, browns, olives, rusts, and grays set of by
touches of brighter colors. TenNapel not only shines when it comes to
large-scale action, but his way with posture and facial expressions make his
characters’ personalities strong. Cam’s dad is a wonderful sad sack, while
Marcus is kind of hideous outside as well as in—you can’t turn your eyes away!
Cardboard is really the story of Marcus, this pathological liar that only a rat
could love. (And the rat bites him.)

Still, even though TenNapel may get carried away with the symbolism, his
book is so brash and over-the-top that he pretty much pulls it off. I’m guessing the 10-year-old boy you hand this one to will completely miss the
psychology and just enjoy the action-packed storytelling.

ABOUT ME

I am madly in love with children's books and want to get great books into the hands of kids who will love them, too. Books are like magnifying glasses, intensifying the wonders of people and their imaginations and everything in the world from spiders to shoelaces. Books are a unique sort of conversation. I write them, too, mostly MG fantasy, but sometimes poetry and picture books. Thank you, Johanes Gutenberg!